South Africa: Has the Transition Stalled?

Friday, 7 December 2012

Ann Bernstein, Executive Director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise in South Africa will be at the Legatum Institute for a discussion on challenges faced by the country now and in the future.

South Africa faces innumerable internal challenges today. Perhaps the major issue is the turbulence within the governing alliance led by the African National Congress (ANC). In December 2012, the ANC conference will elect a new leader, who will possibly become the country’s president in 2014. What will this mean for South Africa’s future?

On a grander scale, the global financial crisis is having an impact on South Africa. How does higher growth in the rest of the continent impact South Africa? Is the country managing its global ‘brand’?

A conversation with Ann Bernstein, Executive Director of the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) in South Africa.

The discussion will be moderated by Anne Applebaum, the Legatum Institute's Director of Political Studies.

About the speaker

Ann Bernstein is head of the independent think tank, which is regarded by many - including the Financial Times - as South Africa’s leading policy centre on social and economic development issues. CDE has a special focus on the role of business and its contribution to development.

Ann was a member of the Transition Team and then the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1994 - 2001). In 2005 she was selected as a Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, Washington DC. In 2007 she joined the Board of the Brenthurst Foundation. In 2008 and in 2009 she was an invited faculty member at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Her book, The Case for Business in Developing Economies was published by Penguin in 2010 and issued in paperback late in 2011. It has received favourable reviews in the South African media, The Economist, the Financial Times and elsewhere. In March 2012 the book was awarded the annual ‘Sir Anthony Fisher Award’ by the Atlas Research Foundation in Washington DC.

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The foundation

The Legatum Institute Foundation is a registered charity (number 1140719), and a company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and Wales (company number 7430903), registered address 11 Charles Street, London, W1J 5DW